Rene Marie Quartet

A self-taught vocalist who grew up in Warrenton and Roanoke, Virginia, Rene Marie has been compared to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson. A bit of a musical prodigy, Rene taught herself to read music at age nine, started writing songs when she was fifteen, conducted her church youth choir and performed professionally at local clubs by the age of seventeen. During these formative years she listened to Maurice Ravel, Hank Williams, and Harry Belafonte, and learned harmony from Peter, Paul & Mary and the Beatles. Sly and the Family Stone, Roberta Flack, Nina Simone and James Brown were some of her tutors in rhythm, emotional intensity and improvisation. Though she married at age 18 and set aside her musical pursuits to become a full-time mother, she continued to sing at home and explored a wide variety of music genres, including show tunes, jazz, hip-hop, world music and rap. She began to develop her own unique style and as she puts it, “I finally got bored sounding like someone else so I started experimenting— singing scat and turning non-jazz songs like “Stand By Your Man” into jazz. It was as if I had learned another language.” Marie returned to performing in 1996 at the age of 44, after a more than 20-year gap and by 1998 self-produced her first CD, Renaisssance. Her second CD, How Can I Keep From Singing?, (MAXJAZZ) which also featured jazz piano legend, Mulgrew Miller, hit the top of the jazz charts and received an Indie Award for best Jazz & Cabaret Vocal. She also received a SESAC (Society for Stage Authors and Composers) Award for the CD. Her third CD, Vertigo, also on MAXJAZZ, was selected by The Academie du Jazz (Paris, France) for Best International Jazz Vocal CD of 2002. Her other work has included singing in the Richmond Symphony’s Tribute to Duke Ellington and starring in the role of Ella Fitzgerald in the theatrical production “Ella and Her Fella Frank” among other projects. Marie has garnered rave reviews and industry recognition for the open and adventurous spirit in her jazz interpretations and composing style. Don Heckman, jazz critic of the Los Angeles Times put it this way “Rene Marie is a jazz singer with the talent, imagination and the sheer presence to be included in the top level of performers ... a marvel, a cornucopia of musical expressiveness.”

$20/$15 Members. Available in advance, by phone or in person, at the Outpost Performance Space (268-0044)